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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22378204">Touch Me Gently</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaintheSnow/pseuds/AdrianaintheSnow'>AdrianaintheSnow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Snow Dice Rolls [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abuse mentioned, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Sympathetic Everybody, This is pretty short and it could be a one-shot, Tickling, but for style and editing purposes I'm going to do chapters and post it all over the next few days, but only in the theoretical, i forgot about that one, none has or will actually happen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:13:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22378204</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaintheSnow/pseuds/AdrianaintheSnow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He had a total of four soulmarks: not an unheard-of thing, but rather rare. There were purple fingerprints on his wrist, looking like a day-old bruise from where someone had grabbed him too hard. What his mother had seen when he’d entered the kitchen was actually two soulmarks that overlapped slightly: a light blue one that darkened his lips and a yellow handprint that covered the lower parts of his cheek and jaw. The ring finger and the tip of the pinkie hit his lip, mixing with the blue to look like a sickly greenish-yellow bruise. What his dad had seen peaking out of the top of his t-shirt was a dark blue mark in the shape of fingers around his neck. </p><p>Roman had been overjoyed when he realized what the marks were after the initial confusion. His parents had been a little less enthusiastic.</p><p>Roman meets his soulmates one-by-one and it’s not at all what everyone assumed when they first saw his soulmarks.</p><p>This is part of my Roll the Dice Event which is where I do random ships, universe, and genres for the Sanders Sides fandom. My prompt was DLAMP Soulmate AU fluff using the word "graze".</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton/Deceit Sanders, DLAMP</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Snow Dice Rolls [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610857</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>650</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Don't Leave Bruises</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was supposed to be around 1,000 words...</p><p>My favorite part of this fic is probably the chapter titles lol.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Roman woke up one normal day when he was six years old feeling altogether normal. His mom had just knocked on the bedroom door to wake him and his brother up and told them breakfast was ready. He yawned and poked his brother in the side. “Mom said get up.” His brother just mumbled something about tomatoes and threw a pillow at him. Roman huffed. “Fine, but you’re going to be in trouble again.”</p>
<p>He put on the lion slippers dad had gotten him for his birthday (They opened their mouths every time he took a step like they were roaring!) and then walked down to the kitchen. Mom looked up when he entered the room and stopped pouring the orange juice with two cups full and two still empty. “Oh, baby what happened?!” she gasped.</p>
<p>Roman looked at her in confusion, still rubbing sleep from his eye. His father looked over, and he seemed equally as horrified. “Wha-?” Roman asked.</p>
<p>“Your face,” his dad said, coming over and kneeling in front of Roman before he could blink. “Does it hurt sweetie?”</p>
<p>Roman’s eyebrows crinkled. “No,” he said with a frown. “Why would it?”</p>
<p>His dad touched a thumb to the skin right next to his mouth. Roman continued to look at him curiously as he stroked his thumb up very carefully with a frown on his lips. Then his eyes caught on something on his neck, partially hidden by his high-necked t-shirt. His fingers came to trace something there and Roman giggled and squirmed away. “No daddy that tickles!” He went to push him off and noticed a smattering of purple on his wrist. He looked at the other one and there was a matching mark in the same color there.</p>
<p>“What’s this?” Roman asked his dad, showing it to him.</p>
<p>His dad looked over at his mom who was still standing at the kitchen counter with the carton of orange juice in her hands. She sat it down slowly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had a total of four soulmarks: not an unheard-of thing, but rather rare. There were purple fingerprints on his wrist, looking like a day-old bruise from where someone had grabbed him too hard. What his mother had seen when he’d entered the kitchen was actually two soulmarks that overlapped slightly: a light blue one that darkened his lips and a yellow handprint that covered the lower parts of his cheek and jaw. The ring finger and the tip of the pinkie hit his lip, mixing with the blue to look like a sickly greenish-yellow bruise. What his dad had seen peaking out of the top of his t-shirt was a dark blue mark in the shape of fingers around his neck.</p>
<p>Roman had been overjoyed when he realized what the marks were after the initial confusion. His parents had been a little less enthusiastic.</p>
<p>They’d had to talk to his teacher to explain that the marks were in fact soulmarks and not actual injuries. He’d later learned that his teacher had sent them to have a discussion with a school counselor about what to say to him.</p>
<p>They’d sat him down later that week. He’d listened to them talk about how, even though everyone liked to say that soulmates were always about loving each other and being romantic, sometimes that wasn’t always true, especially when you have so many. Sometimes they’re just really good friends, sometimes they ended up being important mentors, and sometimes they were even enemies. Roman had kicked his feet with his brow scrunched up. “Not mine,” he said. “I’m going to kiss all of mine. I bet they’re really pretty.”</p>
<p>His dad had said that maybe they are or maybe some of them are, but that he should always remember that he deserved to be happy no matter what his soulmarks said. He could find love with people who weren’t soulbound to him. Roman’s face had screwed up at that. He already loved his soulmates. He didn’t care what his parents said or about how his teacher looked at him weird. They were good. He could tell.</p>
<p>His parents had figured out pretty quickly that there wouldn’t be much arguing with him. He’d insisted that he already knew that all of his soulmates were wonderful, and he’d love all of them a lot and they’d love him. His mom had ended the conversation by making him promise to never try to love someone who hit him, even if they were his soulmate.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Go to Your Knees</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Roman was 10 years old, and most people his age at the park were boring. Since they were almost middle schoolers, they’d all stopped playing make believe games on the play equipment to do boring things like play baseball or try to get basketballs in hoops. So, when Roman went to the park, he often found himself playing with the slightly younger kids. The fourth and third graders weren’t yet concerned with growing up and were willing to play knights and princesses with him. What was best was that, since he was older, they thought he was cool and always wanted to play what he wanted to play. That meant he got to be the knight, and nobody argued with him.</p>
<p>“I’ll get you dragon!” he exclaimed, chasing after one of the other boys with his hands out in front of him.</p>
<p>The boy looked back at him. He didn’t make a very good dragon despite the box they’d drawn on with green marker to look like scales he’d placed on his head; there was nothing scary about him at all. He giggled when he saw Roman chasing him, but he was too busy looking at Roman to watch where he was going. He tripped, managing to catch himself on his hands.</p>
<p>Roman stopped and immediately knelt down in front of him. He had a shocked look on his face. “Are you okay?” Roman asked. The boy moved slowly so he was sitting and looked down at himself. He looked mostly okay, but he had a scrape on one knee, and it was pretty red. “Here, I’ll make it better,” Roman said. He leaned forward and gently grazed the boy’s knee with his lips like his parents always did when he got hurt. The boy gasped, doubtlessly feeling the same tingling sensation Roman did at the touch. The boy’s knee was suddenly a lot less red.</p>
<p>Roman sat up and they looked at each other. A couple of the other kids had caught up to them.</p>
<p>“Wow!” said one of them.</p>
<p>“What?” asked another.</p>
<p>“Look at his knee!” the first one said. “It turned white. That means Patton and Roman are soulmates!”</p>
<p>The boy, Patton, looked suddenly a bit shy. Well that wouldn’t do.</p>
<p>Roman popped to his feet. “Look!” he exclaimed, “It’s the missing prince Patton. He must have been cursed by a witch and turned into a dragon, but true love’s kiss broke the spell.”</p>
<p>Patton giggled and grabbed his hands, letting him pull him to his feet. The other kids around them cheered.</p>
<p>“Shall we ride off into the sunset now, my prince?” Roman asked with a bow.</p>
<p>“Yes!” he replied. The other kids continued to cheer for them as Patton grabbed his hand again and started pulling him towards the adults. “Mama, mama!” Patton called when they got closer. Roman saw his own parents notice them too. “He kissed my knee mama!” Patton said. “Look! He kissed my knee!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His parents had calmed down just the slightest bit about his soulmarks after he met Patton if for no other reason then they knew he’d have at least one nice soulmate. They were still worried about them though. Patton shared his colors, which probably meant they’d be the same people. That helped his parents stop worrying a bit about the purple and yellow ones. The purple one was on the other boy’s lips which, after Patton, they assumed might be a kiss, and the yellow one was on his palm and likely a simple handshake. The dark blue handprints on Roman’s throat still worried them the most, and Patton’s long stripe of blue across his chest did little to belay their fears. That was not a normal place for a soulmark and their minds spun with the possibilities. Roman and Patton refused to be worried about it though.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. I Can Breathe; I promise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Look Roman! Look I’m a tree!” Roman smiled over at Patton despite not feeling quite like his normal charming self today. His boyfriend was incredibly adorable in his costume. The costume designer had put him in brown pants, painted his bare chest brown with darker lines to make his torso look more like a tree trunk, and had given him a green hat with construction paper leaves which now rested on his head. One of the leaves fell out as he waved a bit too excitedly. He was certainly enthusiastic about having such a little part in the musical. But, to be fair, he was just a freshman and wasn’t as personally invested in theatre as Roman. He still liked it of course, but Roman knew his real motivator for signing up had been to spend more time with Roman. Because of the two-year age gap, their parents had instituted the rule of no dating until both of them were in high school. Now they were both in high school and were making up for lost time.</p><p>Despite the smile Roman had managed for him, Patton still frowned a bit at his lackluster response. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked for probably the dozenth time that day. He was younger than Roman, but he was always trying to take care of him.</p><p>“Of course,” Roman said doing best to project so his voice didn’t sound as weak as it really was.</p><p>“Are you sure?” Patton asked.</p><p>“Yes, ouch!” Roman yelped when he was stuck with a pin, and that set off the coughing fit he’d been holding back most of the day.</p><p>“You are not okay!” Patton accused. “You’re sick!”</p><p>“I,” he coughed. “I am not.”</p><p>“You should not be here infecting the rest of the cast if you are ill,” a voice chided.</p><p>“M’not sick,” Roman argued, narrowing his eyes at the stage manager, Logan. Logan was a senior that Roman had worked with in the last 4 performances. He’d been a techie for most of that, but he’d been given the stage manager position this year. He and Roman hadn’t talked much, but he seemed like an okay dude.</p><p>“I’ll be the judge of that,” Logan said. “Sit,” he ordered. At least, he seemed like an okay dude when he wasn’t ordering Roman around.</p><p>“I’m getting fitted,” Roman complained.</p><p>“Lizzie, could you leave please?” Logan asked.</p><p>“Yeah, sure,” she said, not daring to challenge the serious stage manager.</p><p>“Now you’re not getting fitted. Sit.”</p><p>Roman did, but he pouted about it. “Fusspot,” he mumbled darkly while crossing his arms.</p><p>Logan didn’t lower himself to respond. He just pulled up a chair in front of him and studied him for a few moments. “Let’s see,” he said. “Your face is flushed, your nose seems to be running, and your lymph nodes are,” he reached out both hands to feel carefully at his neck with gentle fingers. There was a long pause where they stared at each other for a long time, “uh, swollen,” he finished, voice now a bit shaky. He slowly removed his fingers which were now white tipped (except for the left thumb which was purple) from Roman’s neck.</p><p>Patton gasped when he saw it. “Yay!” he exclaimed and rocketed towards them. Logan raised an arm up in surprise to block the excited boy from tumbling into them. It landed right where Roman knew there was a blue (well likely not anymore) mark below the paint. After a moment, he lowered his arm and let a practically vibrating Patton hug him.</p><p>“Great!” Roman said, getting to his feet. “We should go tell everyone and then we can get back to costuming.”</p><p>“Absolutely not,” Logan said. “You’re clearly sick. I’m driving you home.”</p><p>Roman pouted at him, but it was no use with two overbearingly caring soulmates ganging up on him. He grumbled the entire ride home in the back seat while Patton gave Logan directions to Roman’s house from the passenger seat.</p><p> </p><p>Meeting Logan calmed his parents down considerably about Roman’s soulmates. Despite their trepidation about Logan before Roman had met him, they ended up loving him. He was everything a parent dreamed about for their child’s soulmate. He was smart (already admitted to a university by the time they’d met), respectful, always very gentle with both of his soulmates, and sexy in a nerdy way (okay the last one was Roman, not his parents). The purple soulmark on his thumb certainly wasn’t a cause for alarm and the yellow mark on the back of his knuckles was probably not from him punching anyone in the face (they hoped).</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. I'll Turn the Other Cheek</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Roman managed to get into Logan’s college once he graduated high school, and they moved into the same dorm room when he was a freshman and Logan was a sophomore. They planned to get an apartment next year and live off campus. It was nice to be living with his soulmate even though the tight space caused a few tiffs considering Logan was incredibly organized and Roman’s organization system was throwing dirty shirts into one of two pile in the corner of the room. However, their arguments usually blew over rather quickly, and, more often than not, led to some fun make-ups. The only problem was the fact that Patton, of course, still had two years of high school left. He still visited every weekend, but Roman couldn’t wait until they could all live in the same place.</p><p>In the second month of the spring semester, his freshman communications professor assigned partner projects and Roman got paired up with a guy who went by Dee.</p><p>Dee was a nice guy, if a bit sarcastic, and they became pretty good friends throughout the project. He got along well with Logan when they worked on the project in his and Roman’s room. Logan liked him too even though Dee liked teasing him a bit. Logan often couldn’t tell when he was joking or not. After the project ended, they’d all still hung out often.</p><p>Currently, Roman and Dee were enjoying antagonizing Logan who was working on some science paper on his computer. They were tossing light plastic balls at the back of his head and then claiming they didn’t know what he was talking about when he confronted them. Logan had finally decided that if he ignored them completely, they’d get bored and stop, and so had put in headphones and was resolutely staring at his laptop.</p><p>Dee threw one last ball at Logan’s back before leaning back into the futon he was sharing with Roman. “One day,” he said. “We’ll manage to drive your soulmate insane.” Roman just laughed.</p><p>“He says we get along far too well for his sanity,” Roman divulged.</p><p>“Well, we are both in the asshole soulmate club,” he said. Roman frowned and opened his mouth. “Not him,” he assured nodding at Logan, “he’s a nerd, but he’s good. You got real lucky with him. I’m talking about that one,” he waved to the yellow soulmark on Roman’s cheek.</p><p>Roman continued to frown. “All of my soulmates are wonderful,” Roman insisted.</p><p>“Oh please,” Dee said. “Even if that isn’t a slap, which is totally is, he still marked up your face for your entire life. Which sucks.” He motioned to his own face which was half covered by a weirdly shaped blob of purple. His entire hand was also purple and Roman always wondered how on Earth that was all going to happen. “So, asshole,” he concluded.</p><p>“No. I refuse to believe it,” Roman said stubbornly. “I’m sure he’s lovely.”</p><p>“Oh really?” Dee asked. “Even though you’ve had to deal with a palmprint right here,” he reached up to touch the mark, “…your… your entire life. Oh, god. I’m the asshole.” he pulled back his hand leaving a white mark on Roman’s cheek. “but how…?” Instead of being purple, his hand was a familiar light blue, red having faded from it. “Oh,” he said. “So then that’s… that’s four soulmarks then? Instead of two.”</p><p>“Just like us,” Roman said. A wide smile took up his entire face. He looked over at Logan who had clearly not heard the conversation due to his headphones and then back at Dee.</p><p>“So,” Dee said hesitantly. “Do you think.”</p><p>“Let me see the other one!” Roman demanded.</p><p>Dee rolled up his sleeve to his elbow to show him a dark blue mark on the inside of his forearm.</p><p>Roman almost vibrated out of his seat. “That’s Logan. I know that’s Logan.”</p><p>A slow smile crept up Dee’s face. “Well then,” he said. “I better go check.” He slithered off the futon and walked over to Logan, grabbing one of the plastic balls on the way. “Logan,” he said, dropping the ball on top of his head. Logan’s nose twitched, but he didn’t react. Dee picked up the ball again to drop it on his head again. “Logan.” Logan still didn’t do anything. Dee did it a few more times and Roman could see irritation at the corner of Logan’s eyes, but his mouth was also twitching up a bit when Dee leaned forward and carefully moved the headphones so he could say. “Logan,” into his ear. He waved his bare arm in front of the computer screen. “Earth to Logan.” Logan reached up and batted gently at Dee’s arm in agitation with the back of his hand. Then he froze. Dee smirked down at him when he looked up.</p><p>That weekend, they introduced Patton to Dee and both of their palms went white when they shook hands.</p><p>He brought Dee home with him for spring break to meet his parents. If they were a little leery of the giant mess of purple that stained his face, they didn’t mention it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Don't Hold Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oops, this part is longer. I have so characters running around now and I had to tell you all their perceptions of things somehow.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Patton finally was able to start school with them, his three soulmates quickly learned something new about Patton that hadn’t been as apparent when he lived in a small town and knew everyone at his school. That is, he had a tendency to bring home strays. So many strays, and Roman wished he was only talking about the three dogs, (“Patton they don’t allow dogs in the apartment,” said Logan.) five cats (You’re allergic to cats!” yelped Roman when the tabby cat bit him.), and one giant snapping turtle (“Absolutely not,” seethed Dee.). No, he brought home people, especially in his first semester, and Patton, bless his heart, was not always the best judge of character.</p><p>So, who could blame Roman for being a bit mean when he’d come home to find an intimidating, rough looking emo who had a tendency to hiss at anyone who got in his personal bubble? It was like Patton had brought home an even more feral cat than the previous 5. Roman had not been happy and he and the emo had gotten off on the wrong foot, all but having a fist fight in the living room upon their first meeting.</p><p>Yet, Patton had continued to bring him around and slowly the rest of them warmed up to him. Dee actually didn’t have a problem with him from the beginning. He’d laugh at Roman when they’d fought over petty things in the beginning, appearing to enjoy the way they bantered. He claimed it was sexy which made Roman unsure if he should be angry, flattered, or embarrassed.</p><p>Logan had been next, and it had happened in the blink of an eye. When Roman had went to bed, Logan was insisting on staying up to supervise Patton and Virgil’s movie night because he didn’t trust him alone with Patton. Roman had woken up to Logan practically force feeding him breakfast and doting like a mother hen. They’d apparently both figured out they were interested in a book series and started to debate things about the mechanics of it; they’d somehow ended up laying on the floor talking about the mysteries of the universe at 3am.</p><p>“I don’t know what they were saying, but they seemed to be having fun,” Patton had said.</p><p>Patton had always been trying to dad the emo since they met despite the fact that he was 10 months older than him and Logan quickly fell into the mom friend role after that day.</p><p>Roman had been the last to warm up to him. It had been a slow process, but the sharp edges of their arguments eventually dulled into playful banter. Now Roman didn’t know why he’d ever thought him intimidating or rough. Especially right now. Right now, he looked adorable.</p><p>“Come on,” Roman said. “You agreed to this.”</p><p>“You said nothing about removing the hoody!” There was a wide-eyed pout on his face and he had his hands tucked into said hoody’s sleeves.</p><p>“Virgil it’s a make-over. All inclusive. That includes trying on cloths! Besides, you don’t want me to get it stained when I dye your hair, do you?” He grumbled but reached for the edge of his hoody. “Wow you’re really skinny,” Roman said once it was off. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Virgil without his hoody, “Do you eat enough?”</p><p>“Don’t you dare say anything like that to Patton or Logan. They already feed me far too much.”</p><p>“Whatever emo.” Roman was making absolutely no promises. “Now come over here.” He waved his gloved fingers at him.</p><p>Virgil sighed and walked over to the set up near the sink. Roman placed his hands on his shoulder and shoved him into the chair in front of it. “I’m going to brush the die into your hair now so just relax.”</p><p>Roman reached for the bowl of dye and the application brush, but right before he almost got started, Virgil shot back out of the seat. “Wait this is stupid. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want my hair dyed purple. People will look at me!”</p><p>“Maybe, but that’s because you’re as cute as a button, not because of your hair.” He hissed in response and Roman laughed. “Just trust me Nightmare on Evanescence Street.” He glared, but obeyed, sitting back in the seat so Roman could put the dye in his hair. He relaxed as Roman messed with his hair, practically purring, and Roman couldn’t help but think Patton did get to adopt a cat after all.</p><p>They let the dye set, and Roman noticed he was starting to get twitchy again, so he brought in prospective outfits for him to look at for later. Virgil rejected basically all of them. “If you try to put me in that, I will tear it and then you to shreds,” he threatened. Roman just laughed and put that outfit in the maybe pile. Roman put on a new pair of plastic gloves once the timer went off for the dye and gently washed it out before shampooing and conditioning his hair.</p><p>He went all melty again under Roman’s fingers and Roman couldn’t help but think he was adorable. Then he saw something while stroking Virgil’s hair back that was normally covered by his fringe. “You have a second soulmark?” he asked.</p><p>“Hmmm?” he said lazily and then blinked. “Oh yeah. Three actually. There’s one on the side of my neck too in addition to the hands one.”</p><p>“Looks like a forehead kiss,” Roman said smiling.</p><p>“Yeah,” Virgil replied with a frown.</p><p>“You don’t seem too happy about that. At least that one’s cute and doesn’t make people think your soulmate’s going to strangle you like Lo’s.”</p><p>“Yeah, but what kind of weirdo kisses your forehead upon first meeting. I don’t like strangers touching me, let alone kissing me, even if they are my soulmate,” he screwed up his nose.</p><p>“The reasons for soulmarks can surprise you,” Roman said. “Maybe they’re a dashing prince, princess, or nonbinary royalty that is kissing you to break a curse!”</p><p>“Ugh, are we still on about the consent issues with kisses to break curses?” he groaned.</p><p>“Until you agree that I’m right, yes, we are!” Roman insisted. “Besides, it’s not like a forehead kiss is that creepy.”</p><p>“Ugh whatever.”</p><p>Roman smiled as he finished rinsing the boy’s hair and handed him a towel. Virgil dried off his own hair while Roman threw away the gloves. “Okay, we’ll let it air dry while we do make-up,” he said gesturing to the other chair he’d set up in the bathroom. This one was near the mirror with all its bright lights but facing away from it so he couldn’t see before Roman was done.</p><p>“Nothing too heavy,” Virgil reminded him.</p><p>“I promise,” Roman said rolling his eyes. “Just foundation, blush, and a little eyeshadow actually in the location god intended it.” Virgil stuck out his tongue. “Maybe we’ll be able to make you look actually alive instead of like a gloomy vampire.”</p><p>Roman went about applying foundation with a sponge, in a shade just a bit darker than Virgil’s usual foundation. Then he considered the shades of blush he had and picked a nice light pink one.</p><p>“Ugh, you’re going to ruin my image,” Virgil said when he saw the shade.</p><p>“Oh no, what a horror,” Roman said dryly while getting the brush covered in the powder. “Now shut your mouth unless you want me to ‘accidently’ make you eat blush and smile so I apply it right.”</p><p>Virgil closed his eyes and gave him a very sarcastic smile, but it worked to raise the apples of his cheeks so Roman could get the blush in the right place. He wasn’t expecting that smile to get a lot more genuine when the brush touched down on his skin and he was especially not expecting him to jerk back and snort.</p><p>“What?” Roman asked, suppressing a smile as he moved the brush toward his nose. He bunched it up and giggled in response. “Is something the matter?”</p><p>“Nuh uh,” he responded, seeming to wrestle control over himself when Roman went to the other cheek.</p><p>“Is that so?” Roman asked and quickly shot the brush toward his ear.</p><p>“Roman!” Virgil yelped, jerking away and rubbing at his ear. “That’s not where blush goes!”</p><p>“It isn’t?” Roman asked. “My mistake, but we really should even it out anyway,” he said as he brought up the hand without the brush to block him from standing and aimed the brush at his other ear.</p><p>“No!” he cried and grabbed both of his wrists to try to push him away, smiling the whole time. They both stopped. “What was that?!” he asked, pulling back to look at his palms. They’d faded from orange to yellow. “It changed color?” he asked.</p><p>Roman looked at his own wrists and then brought them up to show him. “They do that when you have two soulmarks in one place,” he told him. “Dee’s did that with mine and Patton’s.”</p><p>“I don’t…” he hesitated. “I’m your soulmate?”</p><p>“All of ours, I’d imagine,” he said.</p><p>“Oh,” he replied. “I didn’t expect that.”</p><p>“Well,” Roman said. “Then we really need to finish this make-over and make you look absolutely stunning for your reveal.”</p><p>“We don’t know for sure that it’ll be them,” Virgil mumbled, but longing was clearly in his eyes.</p><p>Roman put his fingers under Virgil’s chin and tilted his head to get a good look at the one on the side of his neck. It looked like a thumb print. “The colors and locations match up,” Roman said smiling. “Now, let’s get you all gussied up.”</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Love Me Softly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Roman’s other three soulmates got back from the grocery store a few minutes after Roman finished blow-drying Virgil’s hair.</p><p>There was panic in Virgil’s eyes when he heard the door open from the other room. “Oh my god. Oh my god. I’m going to meet my soulmates with purple hair! Why did I let you talk me into this?”</p><p>Roman just rolled his eyes. “You literally just said you loved it.”</p><p>“Yeah, I do, but what if they don’t.”</p><p>“They will.”</p><p>Logan stepped into the living room, mumbling to himself. Clearly, Patton and Deceit had managed to win the weekly grocery list battle. Which meant less veggies and more cereal and cookies for Roman this week.</p><p>Logan looked up and caught sight of Virgil, and the way his expression went all soft made Roman wonder why they’d never thought he might be their soulmate before now.</p><p>Virgil fidgeted. “Do you… do you like it?” he asked, biting his lip.</p><p>“I love it Virgil,” he replied and put his hand on his shoulder, a normal gesture between the two of them, but Virgil was usually wearing his hoody instead of the t-shirt Roman had wrestled him into, and his thumb brushed the revealed skin there. “Oh.”</p><p>“Hi,” Virgil said, ducking his head. “I found out with Roman today.”</p><p>“Look,” Roman said, brushing his hair away from his forehead with careful fingers and pulling his hand up by the wrist to reveal the colors there. Logan smiled.</p><p>“Patton, Dee, come in here,” Logan called.</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re still upset about Logan,” Dee said as he and Patton entered, “Pizza is totally a vegetable.”</p><p>“And we will surely continue this debate for the rest of our lives,” Logan replied, “but that’s not what we’re talking about right now.” Virgil waved with the hand not currently being held by Roman.</p><p>Dee blinked. “I see.”</p><p>“Virge!” Patton enthused, pushing past Dee until he was right in front of Virgil. His eyes lit on the soulmark on his forehead and he all but started vibrating. “Can I?” he asked.</p><p>Virgil blushed a bit and nodded. “Sure,” he said shyly. Patton leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead. Patton squeed a little bit when he pulled back, and Roman didn’t have to look at his lips to know they’d turned white.</p><p>Then they all looked over at Dee. “So, you’re the culprit,” he hissed.</p><p>Virgil snickered. “Guess so. How do I even do that?”</p><p>“Well you’d better figure out soon or I’m leaving.” That was clearly a lie. There was no way he was going anywhere right now.</p><p>“Hmm,” Virgil hummed. He squinted at the soulmark and spread out his fingers so they could be threaded together but still lay flat. Dee bent down and tilted his head so Virgil could more easily lay his hands on the mark. The soulmarks were both white when Virgil drew back his hands. Virgil laughed.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Dee said with his eyes narrowed. “I wonder for years what could cause that mark and it’s because you had to twist and bend yourself to match it. That shouldn’t even be valid.”</p><p>Virgil kept laughing and Patton and Roman giggled along. Even Logan smiled much to Dee’s displeasure.</p><p>“I hate you all.”</p><p>“Love you too, Dee,” Patton chirped back.</p><p>Roman’s hand snuck out to grab Virgil’s. He grazed his thumb across his knuckles. He’d known from the beginning that all of his soulmates would be wonderful even while everyone else worried. He was so glad they made it here.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!<br/>I’m now opening my Roll the Dice Event stage 3 on my tumblr <a href="https://snowdice.tumblr.com/">@snowdice</a>. In this phase, people can send in asks voting for different AUs or genres on my <a href="https://snowdice.tumblr.com/post/190198404135/roll-the-dice-event/">lists</a> to give them a bigger chance to be chosen. You can also comment here. You can also always suggest AUs or genres to add to that list (even at different times). This stage will be open until I post the result of the next roll on my tumblr (at least 2 days from when this fic was published).</p></blockquote></div></div>
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